Advertising agency barrettSF has created a new advertising campaign for the hotly anticipated MARVEL Strike Force, FoxNext Games’ just-launched free-to-play RPG. This is the first game that allows players to mix characters in the MARVEL universe—both heroes and villains—to form teams.
The creative, which was edited into 60-, 30-, 15- and 6-second ads, will run across the internet beginning March 29 and cable and broadcast TV the week of April 2. barrettSF is also working on a series of social videos for MARVEL Strike Force and several posters.
Everything except the gameplay shown at the ad’s end is original CG footage that barrettSF created with Los Angeles-based visual effects studio The Mill. Much action—such as a stuntman falling down a ramp—involved filming live actors in motion-capture suits. The designs for the characters came from game developer FoxNext. The agency took those assets, animated them and then inserted the world around them to create the spot.
“I’ve been a huge comic book fan ever since I was a kid,” said Todd Eisner, barrettSF Creative Director. “To be able to carve out a new corner of the MARVEL universe is a dream come true.”
The spots are narrated by “S.H.I.E.L.D. Medic,” a playable character in the game, but one who has yet to be defined in the broader Marvel Universe. The audience gets inside his head as he prepares to go into battle with his Strike Force team to save the Earth, which has fallen under siege by sinister forces led by Ultimus.
“I’m not a superhero like my teammates, but we do have one thing in common,” the brave and humble S.H.I.E.L.D. Medic says, surveying the damage as his vehicle prepares to land. “We choose to answer when humanity calls. And today, we choose…” But as he takes his first step off the aircraft and prepares to conquer the villains, something goes horribly, comically wrong.
